Opportunity
by cookiegoilforever
Summary: Jack's journal about his regrets and missed chances. One Shot.


Cookie

Okay, here's me taking a crack at writing again after a year's break! Now that it is officially summer vacation again, I thought I'd start it off right with a Newsies fanfic. I wrote this one-shot for Stress's Newsies Drabble website, be sure to check it out! Without further delay:

Disclaimer: I don't own Newsies or Jack or Sarah or any other character from the movie. Disney does.

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Opportunity

_They say lightening never strikes the same place twice_

July1904

Five years ago today, I had the chance of a lifetime. At 17, I had the opportunity to escape from this filthy existence in the slums of New York. Living off a few pathetic pennies from the people of this "great" city was the life I led. These where the people who would believe the improved headlines from a lowly newsboy hawking fish wrappers. To this day, I wonder why I let my chance slip to give up everything I dealt with daily. All the arrangements were right in front of me: the money, the ride, everything to break free to the west, to Santa Fe.

I won't lie; in July of '99, I couldn't imagine leaving the newsies. How could anyone? Life was perfect; I had accomplished something. We won the strike. We had defeated the most powerful men in the city. The guys became like a family to me, and I had met the only woman I've ever truly loved, Sarah Jacobs. She was and still is the most stunning woman I have ever met. For some reason, I lived under the illusion that once the strike ended, everything around here would stay the same. I couldn't have been more mistaken.

I remember waking up one morning to the sound of Kloppman's voice in the old lodging house. It was barely a year after the strike and life was beginning to wear on me again. I rolled out of bed, stepped into my clothes and followed the same routine I had loved for the last few years. Everything you once felt fades as time goes on. I felt that I had missed out, sold out myself in a much more significant way than ever. I wandered down to the distribution office on that freezing January morning and began noticing how quickly the atmosphere around me was changing. I knew I had made some mistakes in the past, I knew this wasn't the first time the sense of regret filled me. I remember the experience of betraying the guys in the strike, and the thoughts that had entered my head at that time mimicked what I felt now. At our age, all of us grew tired of the uncertainty of living day by day, and were ready to move on to other things. Although we had grown together, at the end of the day ultimately all a street rat has is himself. I watched as the people who I had stayed here for left me. Mush started working at the low end of an office; Skittery found himself a girl and settled down. Racetrack began a job at the races. That's when I realized that every dream ends, and I was just waking up from mine. I had missed the only chance I had to start a new dream out west.

That same day, as I climbed into my bunk I realized I had only sold fifty papers that day. Knowing it was time to move on, I began planning how to try to leave this behind me once and for all. Careful not to disturb anyone, I crept back out and over to the Jacob's apartment. Before I could realize what was happening, my hand, already showing the effects of 18 years on the streets, reached up and tapped Sarah's window. I still remember how Sarah's gentle fingers felt on my face as she promised she would be my wife and that we could establish a new life for ourselves.

Often I wonder where I would be if I had followed through on my plan to move to Santa Fe. Odds are my beautiful Sarah wouldn't be with me, and I can't see how I could give that up. Now that I'm thinking about it, maybe the chance of a lifetime was the chance I took staying here. Maybe I didn't miss an opportunity; maybe I created a better one.

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So there we go! I haven't written in a long time, so please read and review! Thanks

**Carrying the banner**

**Cookie**


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